The behavior of a man who assumed a false identity to discredit scholars who were in a professional dispute with the man’s father over the origins of the Dead Sea Scrolls is “absolutely ubiquitous” in the Internet age and is not criminal, the man’s lawyer told the state Court of Appeals Tuesday.

“If we want to go back and resurrect criminal libel in the Internet era we can do that,” defense attorney Ronald Kuby told the court. “But, at least since 1965, the law has been that these types of reputational harms are beyond the scope of criminal law.”